Is college a good excuse for not attending drill? | RallyPoint The fact that there is no apparent option besides hands-on training is deeply concerning, as is the length of the training. So feel free to call in sick. A total of 27.2% of working people volunteered, compared to just 21.4% of unemployed people. And law enforcement is the last group Id trust with my safety. A few years back someone actually did bring a gun into our building, attempting to commit suicide by cop. This article may contain affiliate links. Understanding how to tell your boss you are not working on weekends professionally can help you to say no, with confidence and courtesy. I mean, there are so many reasonable and sensible and logical ways to respond to being told to toughen up, and theyre all better than this, but sometimes If youre making me do this I want it in writing that when I forget this is a drill and deck somebody you pay my legal bills and I dont face any disciplinary action whatsoever is the way to their dear little dinosaur brains. None of it was tailored to our facility. If youre a party person, in your teens or early twenties, a party at Davids is news that will stir a lot of excitement. Bomb threats were a constant fact of life. by Informthem how you need to fill up for one of your colleagues for an extra shift,and you wont be freeuntilmidnight. We no longer politely hold the door open to let a stranger into our secure building. Alternatively, its too difficult to talk about also works. If not, why is this particular emergency getting such outsized priority? Hey you! He doesnt care about his employees feelings. However, there will be times when we would rather not work weekends and have the weekend free to pursue other interests. Here are the best way you can write a professional email at work! I was voluntold to participate in my companys active shooter drills and I said straight out NO. different employees pretending to be the shooter, complete with something like a pellet gun or paint gun, one of the factory guys had a turn at being shooter and took out some aggression on management. I mostly worked the busy evening shift anyway because I was at college during the day, so there was always someone else who could go instead of me. I think midterms and finals are possible reasons for an early dismissal the last day of drill if nothing important is going on. That sounds wildly excessive thats the kind of time spend on drills for issues you deal with every day, like chemical release training at a chemical storage facility. Even though I knew exactly what was happening, my hands were shaking so much that I couldnt lock my door. One of our locations had had an employee shot and murdered in the block between the facility and the bus stop: another experienced a shooting in the street while an adjacent outdoor facility was full of children and families. Its a little trickier because youve already told him youd rather not attend, but if this is the easiest of the options for you, you can do it. Honestly, the boss Im going to take her word for it that hes a nice guy, but hes clearly demonstrated that as far as hes concerned, failing to participate is just going to be a sign that shes everything he probably secretly believes about women and Gen Z. You can ask to be excused from drilling at that point. If this were a short (10-20 min) drill, Id say you might be out of luck. We all know how hard it gets to pull off financially at the last dates of the month. its kind of a variant on calling in sick but honestly, recruiting a trusted accomplice is what i would do. I work in emergency management and these drills are NOT helpful nor necessary for the public. You can only use this one if its raining there. The US is particularly bad because of its gun laws. The OP could ask about if theyve done day long trainings on other disasters and how those were handled if that would make a difference, but Im guessing theyd need to opt out regardless. Im sure its some package a security company sold someone. These drills are not helpful! Maybe you can convince them to reconsider? Small brush and matte eye shadow that even slightly matches your under eye circles, like taupe. Copyright @ Azentek Online Inc | All Rights Reserved, How to Convince Your Wife to Get Breast Implants, Talk to your commander about your concerns, They may be able to work with you to find a solution that doesnt involve attending drill weekend, If you have a medical condition that prevents you from participating in drill weekend, provide documentation from your doctor to your commander, If you have a family emergency or other pressing engagement, talk to your commander about getting excused from drill weekend, In some cases, they may be able to accommodate your request, If you absolutely cannot attend drill weekend for any reason, talk to your commander about the possibility of being placed on inactive Reserve status, This would exempt you from attending future drill weekends until you are able to reactivate your Reserve status. My daughters friend since pre-school was killed in a mass shooting during her freshman year in college. Some people either dont want any gun laws modified as they think that is the start of taking away all gun rights and also now there is such hatred for the political partyso their representatives vote against it. As most millennials in the US here can attest to mass shootings are incredibly tough subject and quite traumatizing. Im very sorry. Are you willing to orchestrate an elaborate tale about a fake aunt and her knee surgery? Thats such a heartbreaking thing to hear and yet, I understand why shes thinking about it. How are you doing? She looked at me and said I went to Columbine High School. I can still feel the bottom dropping out of my stomach. Yelling about justice on the Internet and casting anemic votes isnt going to work. She was fine, thank goodness. Ive heard a couple of guys who have played too many FPS games talk about how theyd save the day. What happens if I skip one drill? : r/army - reddit None of this is a joke, and Im so mad at this LWs boss because the drills are meant to protect people and theyre done out of fear but we cant have TOO MUCH FEAR, mind you, because thats negative somehow. I can not imagine what possible justification there is to spend an entire workday on this. Im in Finland, and the situation isnt nearly as bad as in the US, but we have had school shootings here, too. Adults with postsecondary qualifications will earn significantly more than those with only high school education, so it is a recognized pathway to a more comfortable life with a stable income. Id develop a migraine toward the end of the day before and call in the next day. Instead of a drill, why not just some quick tips on what to do and not do? But the other options could be better in some situations. I had to call out that day for a family emergency. Read More Why Quiet Quitting Your Job is Not All Wrong?Continue. I know he isnt *always* a jerk, but hes really being a jerk about this. What I wonder is, if you all spend seven hours at work doing not-work, will you have a huge backlog of work the next day? I hope you can push back on this and would hope theyd realise that its inappropriate for it to be mandatory, but at the very least, please call in sick and protect yourself, OP <3. Our organization lost one person in the large event because they couldnt believe it was happening and went to go see. Im sure Id feel differently if I had kids who were being repeatedly traumatized at school this way. I would absolutely call in sick. But since I am pretty much exhausted, I dont need anything more than my bed and a day, sleep. Minus the psychodrama? But seven hours? My mind is so boggled by the fact that anyone would find this an appropriate and normal thing to do in a public setting where there are almost certainly students, staff, faculty, etc. I hope it goes well, and click send. something to consider! Published by at June 22, 2022. "My parents." The blanks are left for you to fill, as you indirectly blame your parents for standing in the way of your weekend plans. Im not sure I agree with Hes a nice person.. And dont give up. Her students are fifth graders, so ages 10-11. On my stomach lining, which makes me puke, nearly immediately. 1,614. It is not worth the cost to your mental health to try to justify your position any more to your insensitive boss or even, frankly, other people. I told them the way you prevent that is to click their heels together and wish real hard. If you are in the National Guard or Reserves, you may be required to participate in drill weekends. You also get children with really poor emotional regulation (like, toddler level) and they absolutely need the practice. What a jerk. It was a joke call. Nope , its not. Youre under the weather, the end. Build from the frontend or backend. A.C is the editor-in-chief & career development expert who writes about real-world career advice on job search, interviews, career success, and hiring the right people for the team. and our Worst case, they might show up to work armed, and their colleagues would assume its all part of the training.. Its about 80% victim-blaming) with an actual drill, andI would not be able to. Yet this person always wants the group to come up with brilliant ideas to keep people from having normal human accidents, such as twisting their ankle or getting a door slammed on their hand by some other careless person. However, the opt out usually looks like being told ahead of time what will happen and standing with a non involved officer rather than participating. That he has somehow tricked you into thinking this is okay is horrifying. First thought was to call in sick. Really, you could. The self advocacy takes its own toll. Its the worst. This means if you click a link and/or buy a product, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Most of them are rifles and shotguns that are used for hunting and kept locked up when not in use, with ammo stored separately, and civilians arent allowed to own semiautomatic weapons. Good for you for advocating for yourself. Im likely close to the same age as the LW, and at the risk of making everyone feel ancient, I was born the year Columbine happened. Our local high did one that lasted several hours. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Except the trainings are ongoing so new employees can take them and so we keep getting emails. We finally did get robbed. We still have not done a full security training or, to my knowledge, incorporated safety training into new hire onboarding. I am well into Gen X and we did an active shooter training and I hated every moment of it. I do NOT want to LARP a shooting. The shooters there werent interested in us as long as we stayed on our side of the street. There you go. I did see those and book.arked them all to read and to support my reasons for making the training optional. Weve had active shooter trainings, but no drills in any of the universities Ive worked at (thankfully). Somake a call and tell them how your place is flooded with water and you need to fix itas soon as possible. Unfortunately I really doubt the boss is going to be at all receptive to having his eyes open, just based on the description of him. For example, you can offer to work when others would rather the time off such as during the school holidays, on public holidays, and days when people would like to be away from work such as New Years Eve and Christmas Eve. What I really want is to skip it entirely but if I can, how do I explain this request/decision to my boss without disclosing my mental health struggles, explaining (in vain) the anxiety I feel about this training, or looking like the only person not tough enough to participate (as the only woman in my department)? what about people who cannot lift a chair? The fact that we landed on lets continually traumatize victims as a preventative measure enrages me. Really, have no qualms about it. What isnt so nice is leaving someone hanging or saying youll do something that you have absolutely no intention of doing. Never the Right Word is a participant in the Awin Affiliates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to participating merchants. My high school did that as well. But if you dont know what the siren sounds like, how are you going to know what it is? You can consider this option as well. I can say that Im unsurprised, and that thats an attitude that explains a whole hell of a lot that people write into this blog about, like flat wages, exploitative culture, and the constant fear of losing a job and not being able to afford food/exorbitant rent/anything else that was once upon a time attainable. Your coworker asked you to a 9am brunch on Saturday? They are not going to find out; unless they know your father very well. I know you dont want to do that, being the only woman and all, but I find that sometimes I spend too much effort holding myself together, and an honest reaction sometimes solves the issue. Again her choice is individual and different, but I am glad her workplace is partnering with them so that others who many never have had such drills (me included, 7 workplaces over 30+ years and I have at most had video training) have that opportunity. There's easily 100+ people that will be at the conference. Calm is author Fearne Cotton's mission to find the simple things that can inch us away from stress and over to the good stuff. Forcing people to pretend theyd died???? If someone has a heart attack in my vicinity, I can call emergency services or run a few hundred yards to get the defibrillator, but someone else will have to start CPR. My kids know no other world and Im sad and sick (and voting and advocating) for them. Many would not even know to run if we told them; they cannot comprehend the danger. That means if you click and buy a product, we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This book full of deep insights about the nature of human beings, paired with plenty of laugh-out-loud and highly relatable moments. By the same token, a person who cant deal with guns being fired in their vicinity is unlikely to be able to work as a law enforcement officer, particularly in the US. But in my opinion, your older colleagues have ZERO excuse for not empathizing with your concerns. My Dad was a St. John Ambulance volunteer when he was younger, and was a casualty in drills more than once. Im surprised at the number of commenters who seem to reject calibrating reptilian-brain thinking. Call in sick is what I would do. That sounds ridiculously triggering and excessive for anyone, let alone someone with anxiety. If youre outside the immediate blast radius, being killed by a falling ceiling tile is preventable that way. Columbine happened when I was in college, so I was incredibly lucky to have missed those kinds of drills as a young person. Should issue directions? them how you need to fill up for one of your colleagues for an extra shi. I know I would. 3. And so on. For anyone to work in a position where they may have to do non-violent restraint and not have hands-on training in a controlled environment is INCREDIBLY dangerous and would open your facility to a huge amount of liability, both civilly and criminally. It's almost perfect. Top 10 Excuses to Get Out of Work - Shout! Factory Is it a valid excuse to miss national guard drill if I go to - Quora I cried, honestly, because even though it was very low key and not big budget, it was very effective at showing what its like, to have a normal work and school day completely turn on its head. If you know WHO is conducting the training maybe they could give info about what is happening that day. Be sure to provide your commanding officer with the note as soon as possible. Ive had to listen to presentations or watch video training on this throughout my career, and I always thought wouldnt an employee or student who became an active shooter have gone through this training too? Hes that cavalier about mass mayhem?? I was very glad to not witness that or it would have left me in tears again. is not a good option even if traveling means going across two blocks. To effectively use these excuses, avoid any unnecessary long details. Im proud of you for recognizing ahead of time what I failed to, and fully support you doing whatever you need to do to get out of it. also, to clarify, it needs to be an employment lawyer. I told her that going forward, I would like the opportunity to work remotely on the days of drills or just use my leave entirely and she seemed open to it. But drills for fire alarms, tornadoes, shooters, etc are necessary in my opinion. Creating an outer impression of niceness is not that hard if a person has halfway decent social skills. They are known to induce anxiety in participants, and theres no evidence that they really help much if you find yourself in an actual active shooter situation. 10 points are given just for being in the Reserves, which leaves 14 from AT + 26 MUTA (13 drill days). Take the day off. Ive never done a training myself, but my children have since preschool (note: they are intentionally vague at that age, calling it bad guy training). You got aninvitation to go for a hike on Sunday? I do not feel safe. I didnt know any of this when I went to school that day and it was one of the worst days I can recall (my friends accident hadnt involved alcohol, but the response was almost identical). Dont worry about not looking tough. Ive done that, although, not often but it works & it doesnt look suspicious when you call in next day. You Were in a Car Accident 8. My youngest told me as an incoming kindergartner that she shouldnt but the cool light up shoes for school. How to Cancel Plans at the Last Minute Professionallyand Without You can report an ad, tech, or typo issue here. Michelle Rennex, Film Do that after lunch the day before and you can go home very believably. Excuse 2 | You Punctured Your Tire. This is especially true if you have school-aged children. 1) Wont happen herewe are nowhere near the big city where these things happen. I would be looking for another job immediately if my boss said that to me. I still have really distinct memories of what I can only imagine was my elementary schools first-ever armed intruder drill after Virginia Tech. Im actually a SME in this area and you are so unbelievably incorrect. If he again says something ridiculous like asking if you "wouldn't be able to take it," you could say . I had to sit through one video active shooter training at work several years ago, and that was bad enough. See if you can ask around about who started this training idea. Everyone is tired of climbing down multiple floors of stairs to stand outside in the cold in their pajamas. You should be wearing whatever you would normally be wearing at work, which just further underlines to me the uselessness of the training other than to provoke anxiety and fear. Its super stressful and also completely irrelevant- I work in retail, we dont even have doors that latch, let alone offices to hide in or barricade. Im late to the post, but you dont even have to be a kid for it to be all you know. They used to kind of joke about the fire alarm being pulled and then a school shooting happened where a fire alarm was pulled and kids were shot leaving their classrooms/building. Never had a garish, clashing lip color since I learned that trick years ago when I worked in department store cosmetics and was a model for make up/hair when my friends went through state boards for their cosmetology licenses. I think its 100% okay to stonewall/lie/be vague about your symptoms to protect your privacy if your boss pushes back. Ill explain later. We had a minor fire in our building when it was new, and management discovered the hard way that the alarms didnt sound on most of the 6 floors. Its not a video game. A side hustle is any job that you do in addition to your normal or main source of income. Most units require at least a month notice, but the sooner the better when it comes to requesting to be excused from drill. And make sure to tell them that its coming out of both ends. Essentially, it is suppose to identify potential issues ahead of time; example, local, state & federal departments all using different radio frequencies and needing to figure out what they would use together in an emergency (this was an issue during Katrina). Without fail, some jackass tells me how terrible I look. The drill was short, and we knew it was coming. I imagine the people who put these together were just as out of touch as this boss. Apologize for not making it upto them,but you cant do anything about it? My supervisor (largest waste of space ever) still talks about how much fun she had getting shot at with foam disks. My ability to consent to this work activity was removed, and I repeated to Jerkface that I did not consent, and he said that was fine but I had to do it anyway. Ive never been through any kind of shooter drill. She realized after they should not have made those jokes where I could hear them (though I understand you sometimes need dark humor to deflect your own discomfort). A training session with law enforcement might be okay if it was structured like a q&a or generally sought to give information rather than simply a mocked up experience. Now, were reminded at church that in the event of an active shooter, there are three options, in order of preference: 1) RUN! You say hes a nice guy, but If you're looking to develop your communication skills for professional environments even further, we think youll like the following video course from LinkedIn Learning. Question regarding missing drill weekend : r/nationalguard - reddit They dont have any problem with reading anything, its the simulations. Nope, apparently were supposed to magically ignore our actual needs as well as whether you can actually do any of this running and hiding in the building/area we work in. Children. Take the next day off too. Im a boomer and if I can understand I dont know what your bosss problem is. It is such nonsense. 4. I cannot begin to explain how much I am dreading this training. The introvert/extrovert divide is the most fundamental dimension of personality. You Have a Home Delivery or Are Moving 12. Hes a nice person but has very deeply entrenched ideas about mental health, anxiety, young people, and triggers, and I dont want to have to disclose my own mental health diagnoses to him, make him think Im simply not tough enough to handle it, or come across like a millennial snowflake, etc..